Johan Cruijff ArenA – tournament stadium description

Johan Cruijff ArenA's Euro 2020 games:

Average attendance: 15,238

Location

It is located in the south-eastern part of Amsterdam, which is less than 10 kilometres from the city centre. Because of its distant location, the stadium has its own transport hub just along the east side. It combined trains (long distance and local), subway (routes 50 and 54) and buses.

History of the stadium

Construction of the multifunctional stadium began on November 26, 1993. In just over 2.5 years, the largest facility in the Netherlands was built. The name Amsterdam ArenA was used from its inception until the 2018/19 season, when the venue was renamed Johan Cruijff ArenA. The change was to commemorate the club's deceased legend.

During the quarter century of its existence, the stadium has undergone several modernizations. The goal of most of them was to increase the number of available seats and expand commercial facilities. The arena was covered from the east with a membrane facade, wider promenades for fans were built and floodlights were replaced with LED systems.

Additional solar panels and rainwater tanks were also installed to better care for the environment. From the point of view of Ajax fans, the most important thing was to replace old seats with new red ones, which also have an admixture of club symbolism.

Architecture

Thanks to the first retractable roof in Europe, the stadium gained great fame. It even overshadowed serious problems with maintaining the turf, which must be systematically replaced. From the outside, Johan Cruijff ArenA resembles a flying saucer, especially when it is lit at night. The auditorium consists of two levels of stands. The upper part accommodates slightly more spectators than the lower one.

Other events

The Dutch national team plays most of their home games at the stadium. In 2000, the facility was one of the main arenas of the European Championship (5 matches in total). The most important club games include the finals of the Champions League (1998) and the Europa League (2013).

Because of its multi-functionality, the arena has attracted many music events over the years. In its first year of operation, the venue hosted three Tina Turner concerts. In addition, Michael Jackson (5 times) and The Rolling Stones (8 times) toured the stadium.

Euro 2020 changes

While initially it seemed possible for the stadium to undergo major structural changes from three sides ahead of Euro 2020, in the end only the east stand was expanded with new concourse and facade. However, in this case redevelopment is an ongoing process, including the recent filling of lower tier's corner gates with additional seats.

Euro 2020 capacity

Due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, the facility was to house 12,000 fans during Euro 2020, which is slightly less than 25% of its capacity. However, just days before the tournament, the government approved increase to 16,000.